IT Employment Posts Strong Numbers in March

April 21, 2014

The number of IT jobs grew 0.38 percent sequentially last month to 4,623,800, according to TechServe Alliance, the national trade association of the IT & Engineering Staffing and Solutions industry. On a year-over-year basis, IT employment has grown by 2.38% since March 2013 adding 107,500 IT workers.

Engineering jobs grew in March, up 0.09 percent sequentially to 2,491,400. On a yearover-year basis, engineering employment has grown by 1.65% since March 2013 adding40,500 engineering workers.

“While engineering jobs grew at a more tepid rate in line with the overall U.S. job market, IT employment finished the first quarter on a strong note," stated Mark Roberts, CEO of TechServe Alliance. "Beyond BLS’s numbers, we see this strong demand for IT talent play out in the complete exhaustion of the H-1B visa cap in just days. With a significant numberof petitions expected to be rejected due to oversubscription, H-1B visas subject to the cap will not again be available until FY 2016. Plainly, we need to address the talent shortage in key IT skill sets,” added Roberts.

IT and engineering jobs are found in virtually every sector and industry in varying degrees. Thefollowing table presents information about the total number of jobs in certain sectors that provide a significant amount of employment for IT and engineering professionals.

Technical note: TechServe Alliance's IT Employment Index and Engineering Employment Index are the first specific measurements of IT and engineering employment. These unique measurements of total IT and engineering employment are created monthly by studying the ongoing staffing patterns of a dozen IT and computer related occupations in 22 industries and industry sectors employing significant numbers of IT workers and nearly two dozen engineering occupations in 30 select industries and industry sectors employing significant numbers of engineering workers. Both the monthly IT Employment and Engineering Employment Indices are based on U.S.

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, which is subject to monthly revisions, and is revised accordingly. Both indices are also subject to periodic revisions and annual rebenchmarking that includes revisions to several years of employment data, which also may incorporate new occupational definitions. The next major revision will be publishedin February 2015.

ABOUT TechServe Alliance

TechServe Alliance is the national trade association of the IT & Engineering staffing and solutions industry. Hundreds of IT & Engineering staffing and solutions firms and tens of thousands of affiliated professionals, count on TechServe Alliance to keep their leadership informed, engaged and connected. TechServe Alliance serves as the voice of the industry before the policymakers and the national and trade press. By providing access to the knowledge and best practices of an entire industry and tapping the "collective scale" of hundreds of companies, TechServe Alliance supports its members in the efficient delivery of best-in-class IT & Engineering staffing and solutions for clients and exceptional professional opportunities for every consultant.